Rina Morooka Mr Valera Language Arts Compare and Contrast essay on “The poet’s obligation”, “When I have fears that I may cease to be”, and “In my craft of sullen art” The three poems, “The poet’s obligation” by Neruda, “when I have fears that I may cease to be” by Keats, and “In my craft of sullen art” by Thomas, all share the similarity that they describe poets’ relationships with their poems. However, the three speakers in the three poems shared different views on their poetry; the speaker in Neruda’s poem believes that his poems which were born out of him stored creativity to people who lead busy and tiring life, and are in need of creativity, while the speaker in Keats’ poem believes that his poems are like tools to write down what …show more content…
Despite the fact that the fundamental theme of each poem; the relationship of poets and their poems, is the same, through the three poems, the different views of each speaker is emphasized and showed thoroughly by imagery, and tone. First of all, in Neruda’s poem, he uses imagery like “prison”, and words like “must” to emphasize how his poems present creativity and freedom to people who are in desperate need of them, and his belief that it is his destiny to create such poems. In the poem, “The Poet’s Obligation”, from lines 1-6, and lines 18-19, Neruda uses words like “prison” which is a negative connotation to set the image of people’s lives as negative, and tiring. “Prison” is metaphorically used to illustrate how people are closed up in their own life, so busy that they forget about creativity and freedom. In line 2, Neruda uses the word “cooped up” which is originally used to describe chickens in a small space to describe how people are locked in houses and offices every day. Also in line 19, the word “autumn” appears, and it gives the image of the fall of life, and a time that is near death. Even more, “shroud” which is used to describe people’s heart, originally means a piece